ABSTRACT
Definitions of schools and schooling are legion but one that seems to bear a fundamental significance today as people contemplate the effects upon children and teachers of the Education Reform Act is that issued in Rome in 1977 by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education in the wake of the Second Vatican Council. The two key concepts that should constantly be before any teacher-educator are those of ‘wholeness’ and ‘community’. Student teachers find it less simple to understand the importance of the concept of community because their adult-educational system has already conditioned them to protect fiercely their individuality and to seek self-interest on the single-minded road to academic achievement. The teacher’s sense of community does not come as naturally or as easily as that of the child and yet it rests upon the teacher to create the atmosphere and conditions within which it can flourish.
